COVID-19: US registers its 200,000th death

The US on Tuesday registered its 200,000th death from the COVID-19 pandemic, AFP reported.

According to a rolling tally by Johns Hopkins University, 200,182 Americans have died and 6.86 million have been confirmed infected by the novel coronavirus.

The US has had the world’s highest official death toll for months, ahead of Brazil and India, with 137,272 and 88,935 deaths respectively.

Overall, the US accounts for 4 percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of its recorded coronavirus deaths.

“Covid will be the third leading cause of death this year in the US,” tweeted Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under former president Barack Obama.

According to AFP, the CDC this week reversed its latest guidance, days after saying that the virus can commonly spread through “droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols” produced when a person breathes.

The belief that the virus can be transmitted by particles that linger in the air long after being exhaled has gained support among scientists.

But CDC on Monday removed the wording, saying it was a draft posted in error.